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Re: MBM\'s Flagship - up for renewal!

Good points from Kim there, regarding available new 36/37ft shaftdrive boats with 30knts capability, and a good price. Princess now start at 42ft, Fairline I believe 40ft, Broom err 35OS maybe Sunseeker errr

Re: Sorry but...

Kim,
Whereas I agree with most of what you have said, I do get the impression that the use of Sealines for so long, for whatever reason, has, in my opinion coloured the water a bit, hence the reactions by a few- not mine by the way.
I certainly understand some of the reasoning for their use, however, I feel a change is due.
I think it would be nice therefor, to try something that departs a bit from the norm. By which I mean, different engine types for example. It does seem there is a hang up on Volvo. Or is it yet again a cost issue?
Different types of drive, eg jet drive perhaps, is just one of other possibilities.
As I have said in other parts of this thread, equiping the boat with various navaids etc, could, if the magazine so wishes, form the basis of user reports. To me, this boat ought to be a testbed, for hull, machinery and equipment. And can provide usefull feedback to readers and industry alike.

So in summing up, I think, within the financial constraints, let's go radical.

Re: Sorry but...

If I had 200k to spend on a boat, it would have to be the Sunseeker Portofino 35...
Okay, not a flybridge, but fast enough to buzz around the fleet, and hopefully lower running costs because of lower depreciation.

Engine options

We were in the hands of the builder over engines; they had the resale issue and believed Volvos to be the best bet.

As it was we built up a huge store of knowledge on one of the most common engine types for new boats for our readers (40-series diesels) while getting plenty of hands on thanks to the Cruising Club on Yanmars, Cummins, Caterpillar, MerCruiser and so on (and Volvo Penta for that matter).

I must admit there was an element of devil you know about the decision to go with almost identical numbers two and three boats...after all we also needed the boat to be reliable and a known quantity as well as an exploration. I'm told there are changes coming with the next boat and so this is all a bit retrospective. You (or other readers) can solidly blame me for a Sealine theme in this decade just as you could level the same thing at me regarding Pedro in the 1990s.

It is only fair to say that Sealine were very flexible and not without a sense of humour when it came to building big hours on new boats...yes of course they benefited but I have my doubts all builders would have welcomed the rapid depreciation or the rather strange things we sometimes put the boat through. I never forget the time we were testing 12 GPSs around the Solent with a large stainless steel mast bolted to the flybridge and stayed with various wires. All the cables were routed through various removed bits of vent and flybridge. It all looked a far cry from the brochure image, especially downstairs with a 10ft ply testbench secured to various bits of the woodwork.

In terms of testing, well again some of the kit we used was pretty mainstream but that was dead handy when dealing with a lot of inevitable requests and queries. And yes, extra bits did get bolted on. The latest Sealine was more difficult in that respect because the surfaces were without fiddles but both the previous ones had ply workstations fixed in with extra power supplies; all manner of stuff got put on those over the time I was more involved. I guess half the time we never really explained that enough in the mag but we did get an awful lot of background info from running that kind of programme.

Some of you that saw the boat in those days will know it was stuffed full of all manner of kit; I never knew how to travel light!

Re: MBM\'s Flagship - up for renewal!

I could get hold for them a range of cruisers and performance boats up to about 50' with diesel or petrol engines; yanmar, merc, cummins or volvo engines. Shaft driven or stern drive . 60+mph performance if you want to go that fast in a 40+ footer! (manufacturer makes about 2500 hulls a year) can get them for cost price! they do shaft driven boats of about 35 feet and above and id only want a small commission!!!! -smiley face-